East Park Guinea Pig Welfare

The guinea pigs that live at East Park, Holderness Rd, Kingston upon Hull are kept in sub standard conditions and are not safe from predators. The Animal Welfare Act 2006 states:

Promotion of welfare
9 Duty of person responsible for animal to ensure welfare
(1) A person commits an offence if he does not take such steps as are reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure that the needs of an animal for which he is responsible are met to the extent required by good practice.
(2) For the purposes of this Act, an animals needs shall be taken to include
(a) its need for a suitable environment,
(b) its need for a suitable diet,
(c) its need to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns,
(d) any need it has to be housed with, or apart from, other animals, and
(e) its need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.

Four of these conditions are not being met.
1. The environment is not suitable as predators can get in, many boars are housed together which is not ideal as they will fight and there are only three small hutches that they can shelter in but they are not big enough and they are raised off the ground to a height that makes it difficult for the guinea pigs to get in.
2. The diet is not suitable as the food is exposed to the elements and gets wet so it is not edible.
3. Guinea pigs should not be housed with animals other than other guinea pigs. These guinea pigs are housed with peacocks, chickens and a goat!
4. They live in an open pen that predators can get into and twelve were recently killed by a fox. The wildlife development officer was quoted saying we may lose one animal now and then to a fox, but twelve is unusual he knew foxes were a threat and yet nobody did anything to protect the guinea pigs.

We insist that the guinea pigs are protected from all predators, including birds of prey. The only way they would be protected is to totally enclose the pen, this would also keep the peacocks and chickens out. They should have constant access to the barn which is attached to the enclosure and any dry food should be available for them inside the barn so it cant get wet.

We also suggest that East Park does not breed their guinea pigs because if they were protected and looked after properly then they could live for up to 10 years. Then there would be no need to restock after winter as I was told last time I was there. If East Park worked with reputable animal rescue charities to promote guinea pig welfare then they could become a good influence on members of the public. Currently they are a bad influence that promotes guinea pigs as a throw away impulse buy as they will sell babies to members of the public with a promise to take them back when the kids get bored.